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Leslie And Pierre Amestoy Join The TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

Owners Leslie and Pierre Amestoy have been involved with a bunch of good horses, some of them stakes-winning Quarter Horses, but never anything like Practical Move (Practical Joke). The winner of the GII San Felipe S. and the GI Santa Anita Derby so far this year, he will be among the favorites in the upcoming GI Kentucky Derby.

The TDN Writers' Room podcast, presented by Keeneland caught up with the Amestoys this week to find out more about their operation, their background and their thoughts on Practical Move. They were the Green Group Guests of the Week.

Their trainer Tim Yakteen, has been a big part of the story. While he has deputized for Bob Baffert the last two years with his potential Derby starters, he's not normally someone who you think of when it comes to having Derby starters. But the Amestoys believe he has been a perfect fit when it comes to Practical Move.

“One of my old racing partners, Mike Abraham, knew Tim,” Pierre said. “And then another friend of mine, Jaime Gomez from Los Alamitos, knew Tim. I told them that I wanted to go to a nice barn, but I don't want to be with one of those barns that has 300, 400 horses. I want a more on-hands trainer. They both recommended Tim.

“We didn't meet him Tim till last year's Del Mar meet, when Practical Move was running his first race was. He was just as nice as could be. And we could see the operation in the barn. Leslie trained for ten or 15 years. So we knew what we wanted and Tim was what we wanted. He had a great set up and a good operation.”

The Amestoys, who own Practical Move in partnership with Roger Beasley, bought the horse at last year's OBS April sale. They said he was their number one pick among all the horses in the sale, but almost didn't get him. They budgeted $175,000 for the purchase and wound up paying $230,000. They liked the horse enough that they kept bidding until they got him.

“He was our number one pick, which we never get when we got to sales,” Leslie said. “We always pick the number one and can't buy him. We got him and we had no buyer's remorse ever. Oh, we loved him from the start.”

And that's why they named him Practical Move, because, in the end they thought it was a practical move to buy the colt.

As far as the Derby goes, the Amestoys are already thinking strategy.

“I think he's tactical enough,” Pierre said. “Ramon (Vasquez) can put him where he wants him. I would hope we can get a good enough break that we hit the first turn and we have two thirds of them behind us. We want to be up in the first tier or right behind the first tier of horses. This horse has a really good, really strong, high cruising speed so we can get a good spot and then cruise on the backside and set ourselves up. So if we get our trip, I think coming out of the turn, we're going to be close to the leader and then they're going to have to come get us. If his horse switches leads like he's supposed to I think he'll finish strong.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, 1/ST Racing, WinStar Farm, and West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Randy Moss, Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley took a look back at the problems with the track surface at Laurel, the positive results coming out of Hawthorne since that track cut the takeout on win, place and show bets to 12% and the newest additions to the Hall of Fame. Not to be missed, the trio also discussed Proxy (Tapit)'s win in the GII Oaklawn H., and the decision by Jimmy Jerkens, who has been struggling to find the winner's circle the last few years, to start training in Saudi Arabia.

Click here to listen to the audio version of this podcast or click here to watch the video version.

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Mike Repole Joins The TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

Four days after his Forte (Violence) won the GII Fountain of Youth S. in his 3-year-old debut, co-owner Mike Repole was still beaming. At this point, Forte's lead-up to the GI Kentucky Derby has been perfect. There have been no hiccups and his race in the Fountain of Youth checked every conceivable box. So what did Repole, who owns the horse in partnership with Vinnie Viola, think? We had Repole join us on the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland to find out. Repole was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.

“The script you write never works out,” Repole said. “But the way things have turned out with Forte, I couldn't have written that script any better. We just got his Ragozin number, which was a 7 3/4, which was the lowest number of his career off a four-month layoff. So it's always a promising sign. You don't really know who the competition was in the race. But he hadn't raced in four months and all those horses had starts either four weeks ago or eight weeks ago. So everything really worked out.”

That Repole and Viola have a horse like Forte is no accident. They have spent millions at the sales acquiring dozens of horses. Forte, who cost $110,000, was one of 43 yearlings they bought at the 2021 Keeneland September sale. Over the last two years at Keeneland, they have spent $30 million on 75 horses. Repole acknowledged that their way of attacking the sales only works if you can come up with a couple of stars.

“When you buy 100 horses, if you can get 2% of them to be Grade I winners, you're going to pay for the whole crop,” Repole said. “Now, it sounds easy, but you need to find a Nest and you need a Forte. It is very difficult. But I think I play at all different levels. And listen, I don't want to give away a secret here, but. I'm aggressive.”

Repole made some news during the interview, revealing that his preference is that Forte run as a 4-year-old. He said he would not enter into an agreement for Forte with a stud farm unless they agreed to give him an option to run the horse next year.

“I have to have an option to run him at four, whether we do or not,” he said. “It has to be that I get to choose, and everybody knows that's the plan. Let's be honest, we don't know if he's going to or not. In this sport, we don't even know that he's going to have a next start. But I have to have that option.”

As for Nest (Curlin), the 3-year-old filly champion of 2022 that Repole owns along with Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Repole said she will make her 4-year-old debut in the GI La Troienne S. on April 5 at Churchill Downs.

“We gave her time off and she's grown up and she's developed,” Repole said. “We all know what happens with Curlin's between three and four. It's hard to think this way, but she might even be better this year.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore,https://lanesend.com/ the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, Woodford Thoroughbreds, The Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, XBTV, 1/st Racing, WinStar Farm and https://www.threechimneys.com/ West Point Thoroughbreds, Randy Moss, Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley took a look back at a big weekend of racing that included the Fountain of Youth S., the GII San Felipe S. and the GI Santa Anita H. and a look ahead to the GII Tampa Bay Derby. The subject of Alex Canchari's suicide brought about an important discussion of how jockeys best deal with mental health issues. Canchari's death came six week after jockey Avery Whisman also took his own life. Cadman, a former rider, pointed out that both jockeys were not actively riding at the time of their deaths and said that down time can be difficult for any rider. Finley raised the issue of whether or not it's time to allow jockeys to ride at slightly heavier weights, but Cadman and Moss both maintained that would not solve any problems.

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Louis Cella Joins the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

Another Oaklawn meet is underway and with the Arkansas track offering the highest purse structure in the country during the winter months, expectations are that it will be another banner season in Hot Springs. To discuss the Oaklawn season, the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland called upon track president Louis Cella to explain why Oaklawn has become such a phenomenon. Cella was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.

“It's because we don't charge $12 for a beer,” Cella said when asked how Oaklawn continues to draw such big crowds. “We just gave away six tons of corned beef, two sandwiches and a Coke for a dollar last Saturday. To put that in perspective, we had thunderstorms and rolling electric blackouts all day Saturday. Yet we had close to 15,000 people giving away six tons of corned beef because that's their expectation. That's what they want to do. It's all part of having fun. It's part of the excitement of what we offer. We continually focus on affordability and the $2 bettor and more importantly, family.”

Cella has made some changes since taking over as track president in 2017, including the building of a hotel on track grounds. Another is a longer meet. For this meet, Oaklawn will be open from Dec. 9 through May 6. Cella said the extended season has been a success.

“It is working,” he said. “More importantly, our horsemen seem to love it. It fills in a gap. Equally important is that the city of Hot Springs and our community love it.”

And when it comes to the question that always seems to come up whenever Oaklawn is involved…

“I get asked that all the time, when are you going to put in a turf course?” Cella said. “We're not going to put in a turf course. The time of year that we run, call it December to April to May, means we might have to start turf racing in April. It's just not conducive for us.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, XBTV and West Point Thoroughbreds, Zoe Cadman, Randy Moss and Bill Finley discussed the latest chapter of the Jason Servis story. Servis is facing four years in prison, which Finley said would be a surprisingly light sentence considering that Jorge Navarro got five years. Other subjects included the announcement by the Federal Trade Commission that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority cannot go ahead with plans to start its anti-doping and medication control (ADMC) program on Jan. 1 and the suspension handed down by the New York Gaming Commission to NYRA clocker Rich Gazer for changing the distance of a workout. Moss called Gazer's suspension “an absolute joke.”

In on-the-track news, the crew took a look back at the win by Faiza (Girvin) in the GI Starlet S. at Los Alamitos and looked ahead to this weekend's action, which includes the GII Los Alamitos Futurity and the Springboard Mile at Remington Park.

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Aron Wellman Talks Nest, Buying Strategies, HISA On Writers’ Room

It's a busy time of year for Aron Wellman's Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, with yearling sale season now in full swing alongside the iconic Saratoga and Del Mar meets. But Wellman and his partners are full of energy these days thanks in large part to their Nest (Curlin)–co-owned with Repole Stable and Michael House–who likely sewed up an Eclipse Award for Champion 3-Year-Old Filly with a dominant victory in the GI Alabama S. Saturday at the Spa. Tuesday, Wellman sat down with the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to discuss Nest but also a variety of industry issues in an expansive interview.

“I felt oddly calm going into the race,” Wellman said of his mindset before the Alabama. “She just allows for us to have a lot of confidence. There's plenty of reason to be nervous when you're arguably going for a championship, but she had just thrived so much in the month between the CCA Oaks and Alabama that we went in with a lot of conviction that she was going to go out and perform well again. As far as the performance was concerned, it was nothing short of brilliant. She put on another breathtaking display, and she's just getting stronger and better and more comfortable in her own skin.”

Asked whether or not Nest will return to race as a 4-year-old, Wellman said, “We have every intention of running her back next year. Look, Eclipse is in the business of racing. And while we certainly have a program, an established pipeline of what we refer to as Eclipse fillies that we've made a habit out of developing over the course of the past decade and then selling for seven figures at auction or privately, this filly is cut from a different cloth than most of our Grade I fillies have been in the sense that she's only supposed to get better. Health, of course is always in the back of your mind, but being by Curlin out of an A.P. Indy mare, the thought of her maturing into a 4-year-old and beyond is super exciting. And Mike Repole is the ultimate sportsman. Mike House is getting up there in age and is having the time of his life. I don't want to speak for them, but I would say that having a filly that's capable of running in the races that she's capable of running in at the end of this year and through next, hopefully it's far more important than any zeros that they could add to their ledger at this point.”

The conversation turned to the sometimes rocky implementation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, and Wellman was asked for his impression of HISA's early days.

“The types of partners Eclipse attracts are interested in integrity in all respects and really, what they want most when we send a horse out onto the track is a level playing field,” he said. “Nobody's taking an edge or able to take an edge. So I don't think there's any downside to HISA. Are there going to be growing pains? Absolutely. Any initiative like this, especially in the political realm, is going to have bumps in the road, and we're seeing that. But I've got to be honest, I've been very impressed with HISA's upper management, with [CEO] Lisa Lazarus. She is willing to listen, and although change and getting it right might not be immediate and it might not be happening as fast as we all want it to be, they're trying. And we finally broke down that barrier of actually having some unified governing body as it relates to medication, at least. We've been fighting an impossible battle for decades where we've made very little progress. At the end of the day, we can't lose sight of the fact that the reason HISA is in effect is that we want to operate on a level playing field. If we keep our eye on the ball in that respect, we're going to be okay.”

Elsewhere on the show–which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, XBTV, Three Chimneys, West Point Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock–Joe Bianca, Bill Finley and Jon Green reacted to the arrest of Chad Brown and the suspension of Jamie Ness and looked forward to a blockbuster GI Runhappy Travers S. day at card. Click here to watch the show; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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